


The Real Macaw

by decadent_mousse



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Costume Parties & Masquerades, Fluff, Halloween, M/M, Wendigo!Josh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-31
Updated: 2016-10-31
Packaged: 2018-08-28 05:35:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8433757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decadent_mousse/pseuds/decadent_mousse
Summary: It's Halloween, which means there's a rare opportunity for Josh to go out without people screaming and running away in terror, and Chris thinks they should seize it.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween, you guys!

Chris had only ever watched a couple of the classic monster movies in his lifetime.  It had been years ago, though, when he was a little kid and he didn’t remember much about them.  So when Josh suggested a class movie marathon for Halloween, he rolled with it, especially if the alternative was probably going to be a barrage of slasher movies.  Chris would take hokey monsters over blood and gore any day, especially now.

What movies they couldn’t find on Netflix or Hulu, they went out and fished out of a dvd bargain bin.  Or Chris went out and fished them out of a dvd bargain bin.  

Josh didn’t go out -- pretty much ever -- not even late at night when there weren’t many people out.  He was convinced he’d get spotted, even with the deepest of hoodies, and Chris… couldn’t deny that he worried about that happening, too.  

They were working their way through the Frankenstein movies.  Each one was more ridiculous than last.  Chris could almost pinpoint the exact moment they said “screw it” and gave up on anything resembling a coherent plot.  Right now, the Wolfman and Frankenstein’s Monster were facing off and maybe he’d missed something during one of his trips to the kitchen or maybe the plot was just that hard to follow, but he had  _ no idea _ why they were even fighting.

"This is  _ so _ bad," he laughed.   
  
"You wanna watch something else?"   
  
"Are you kidding?  It’s great.  I don't think I've laughed this hard in, like, ages.”

Josh grabbed the empty bowl of popcorn.  "I'm gonna make some more popcorn while we're between movies."   
  
"Want me to do it?"   
  
"Nah, I got this."   
  
The last time Josh had tried to make popcorn, a couple months back, he'd accidentally stabbed the bag with several of his claws and popcorn had gone everywhere.  They'd spent the rest of the night cleaning it up instead of eating it.  Josh's motor skills and control had gotten a lot better since then, though, and if he wanted to try again Chris wasn't going to stop him.  The more practice he got, the more he'd improve, right?   
  
Alternatively, Chris was going to spend the rest of Halloween cleaning up the kitchen, but that was a risk he decided he was willing to take.   
  
A few minutes later Josh came back with a toothy grin and a bowl full of popcorn.  "Success!"   
  
"Didn't doubt it for a second."   
  
Josh flopped back onto the couch.  "Uh huh."   
  
"You know,” Chris said, “I'm kinda surprised.  You usually go for the hardcore stuff on Halloween."   
  
"This year's... different."   
  
"Yeah.  Yeah, I guess it is.  Sorry."   
  
The vibe had changed, he could feel it.  Josh looked pensive and there was a tension in the room that hadn't been there a few minutes ago when they were just giggling over dumb monster movies.  He hated it.     
  
"Hey, you know what?  Let's get out of here."   
  
Josh blinked at him.  "What?"   
  
"There's gotta be like... a party or something we could go to tonight.  I mean, it's Halloween!  You love Halloween."  He swallowed past the lump that formed in his throat when he almost said "used to love" instead.  "Let's, you know, get out!  Celebrate!"   
  
"Are you serious?"   
  
"Yes, I’m serious!  Come on, it’ll be fun!"   
  
Josh looked hesitant, and Chris wondered if he was pushing it a little too hard.  He was really concerned about Josh never leaving the apartment, though.  The prospect of Josh getting outed as an actual literal creature of the night and someone hurting him was bad, but the not-so-slow death of Josh’s social life was also bad and the prospect of him living the rest of his life completely cut off from society kind of sucked ass, too.  And he knew it bugged Josh.  Whether he admitted it or not, the solitude was getting to him.  Josh could be a loner when his depression got to him, but he was social at heart, and this lurking in the apartment with minimal contact with the outside world was killing him.   
  
And shit, he hadn't gone down into the mines and gotten Josh out of there just to watch him live a miserable life as a recluse.  He wasn’t sure if going for a wild night on the town was the answer, but what else could he do but try?  He refused to believe that this was just the way things had to be, forever.  That wasn’t fair to Josh.   
  
"We can go," Josh said slowly.  "If you wanna."   
  
"We don't have to.  I know you're stressed about being around people and stuff.  It's okay if you aren't up for it.  I want whatever you want, bro.  What do _ you _ feel like doing tonight?”

"I dunno."   
  
"We could just keep the marathon going," Chris suggested.  "I'd be perfectly happy to keep making fun of cheesy movies until dawn, I just... I figured you might like to get out for awhile.  Get some fresh air."

"A party... could be fun."   
  
"It could be."   
  
"So, what, you wanna just go crash some random Halloween party?"   
  
Chris scoffed.  "Right, because you would never barge into a party uninvited.  That would be totally out of character."   
  
Josh smiled.  It was small, and hard to spot in a sea of teeth, but it was there, and that was how Chris knew Josh had been sold.   
  
~   
  
By the sounds of things, there was more than one party going on in their apartment building alone, but Chris wanted to get Josh  _ out _ -out -- not just “down a couple doors” out -- so they went walking around the block to see what else the night had to offer.   
  
They passed by several groups of people as they went.  He saw Josh tense each time, out of the corner of his eye, but none of them batted an eyelash at Josh.  They noticed him, sure, but nobody ran away screaming, because as far as they were concerned Josh was just another guy wandering around in a Halloween costume.  Once Josh realized that, he visibly relaxed.     
  
It was nice.  It was cold out, but not freezing, and there was that energy in the air that came from people buzzing around all night.  He could kind of see why Josh had always liked Halloween so much, it felt cool, like anything could happen.  Good things.   
  
He swooped in and grabbed one of Josh's hands.   
  
"Hey, watch it!  Claws!"  He curled his fingers carefully around Chris's hand, though.   
  
On the opposite end of the block their apartment building sat on, they found a party.  It was one of the older townhouses in the neighborhood, big-ish and by the looks of it teeming with party-goers.  People were coming in and out like some kind of drunken assembly line.   
  
"So... what do you think?"   
  
Josh looked calm, but his hand had tightened around Chris's, a little, and Chris knew him well enough to recognize that he was freaking out, a little bit.

"Didn't come this far to chicken out now," Josh replied.  "Let's... go in."

He’d had been relaxed on the streets, but as they walked into the house full of people, Chris could see him start to tense up again.  After all, a room packed with people was a little different than bumping into a couple people outside.  Chris had an anxious moment where he wondered if this was going to work or not.  If everyone started panicking at the sight of Josh in  _ here _ it was going to be a lot harder to get out and away than it would’ve been out in the open.   
  
Nothing happened, though.  They got a couple appreciative nods, a couple “cool costume” remarks, and got jostled a bit, but other than that, it was fine.  It was completely, refreshingly fine.

“See?” Chris grinned.  “I knew it’d be okay.”

After that, they did what they usually did when they hit a party: they mingled.  

Josh had a talent for stealing the heart of pretty much anyone at any party, even ones he hadn’t been invited to.  He loved Halloween parties, too, he’d thrown more than a few epic ones himself.  He loved checking out people’s costumes and makeup -- it fell in line with all the things he loved about horror movies and stuff like that.  Chris had been worried, a little bit, that that was gone.  That they’d get to the party, and Josh would be miserable, and the whole thing would’ve been a bust.  But Josh was totally in his element, and even if he was a little bit shyer than he used to be, he was still having a good time.

Chris commiserated with a few people at a nearby snack table about school and work, bumped into a couple people he actually had classes with, and even got into a lengthy discussion about computer programming with a fellow computer science major.  He was pretty sure he heard Josh whisper “nerd” in his ear at one point before he’d disappeared back into the crowd.  

He lost track of him for awhile after that, and suppressed the urge to worry.  They'd come out to have a good time, and now they were having it.  Josh didn't have to be in sight at all times.  They were best friends -- boyfriends, too, which was still a recent enough thing to feel new and a little weird.  They loved hanging out together, but for months Chris had been the main source of Josh’s socializing and he was sure Josh was eager to talk to other people for a change.     
  
Eventually, though, he found him again without even having to go looking.  He was sitting on a couch, sipping out of a beer can, carefully holding a straw between his teeth.  Cans were pretty hard to navigate when you had a mouth full of long, pointy teeth.   
  
"Look,” Chris said, “don't-- take this the wrong way, but should you really be drinking?"    
  
"I haven't been around this many people or like…  _ any _ people, at all, in a year and I'm literally demon possessed, so... yeah.  Absolutely."   
  
"I don't think it's technically a demon, more like just... you know, a spirit."   
  
"Tomato, tomahto," Josh said in mid-sip, and the words caused beer to spurt, a little, from the side of his face where the skin was split open.  "Shit."

Chris laughed and sat beside him on the couch.  "Okay, I don't want to be a party pooper, so... so if you tell me that you can drink and it'll be fine and you won't, you know, do anything under the influence, then I'll trust your judgement."   
  
"'Do anything,'" Josh parroted back at him in his own voice, which was never not going to be  _ extremely weird _ .  "Like what?"   
  
He hesitated.

Chris knew Josh still had... cravings.  Not all the time, maybe, but at least some of the time.  They didn't talk about it much, just like they didn’t talk about any of the nitty gritty wendigo stuff much.  He was pretty sure Josh was worried it'd scare him, which... okay, it did a little bit.  Still, Josh had never done anything -- to Chris or anyone else -- and Chris wouldn't have brought him to a party packed with people if he didn't trust that he would continue to not eat people like a responsible adult.  However bad the craving was or however often it cropped up, Josh had it under control.  If it was bothering him now, Chris sure couldn’t tell.   
  
Considering the other stuff he struggled with -- even before the wendigo thing -- without ever letting on that he was struggling at all, Chris wasn't surprised.  If anyone had the strength of will to resist the urges of a raging cannibalistic spirit, it'd be Josh.  Honestly, it gave him hope that Josh was going to pull through.  Not just here, at the party specifically, but in a general life sense.    
  
He'd gone too long without saying anything and Josh said, "Look, I'm not gonna eat anyone, if that's what you're worried about."   
  
Chris shook his head.  "I'm not."   
  
"You were thinking pretty hard, there."   
  
"Not about that.  I trust you."   
  
"Yeah?"   
  
"Yeah.  And if you think you can drink and it'll be fine, then I trust your judgment.  I mean, for all we know, wendigos might not even be able to get drunk."   
  
"Fuck, I'll be pissed if that's true."

"Only one way to find out, I guess," Chris laughed.  "Just... don't start climbing the walls or anything."   
  
They drank companionably for awhile on the couch before wading into the crowd again.  Josh tugged him towards the sound of music and he let himself be tugged.  Eventually they reached what Chris assumed was the dance floor based on the fact that everyone around them was dancing and the music was loudest there.  Josh wrapped his arms around his waist and pulled him close, swaying back and forth more than actually dancing.  Chris swayed along with him, because he didn't have nearly enough alcohol in his bloodstream to think dancing in front of total strangers was a good idea.   
  
"I'm glad you talked me into this,” Josh said.   
  
"Really?"   
  
"Yeah.  I mean... I was kinda nervous, but... it's been good.  It is good.  C'mere."   
  
Chris leaned in, heart thumping in his throat when Josh nuzzled his face.    
  
"I... appreciate everything you've been doing.  For me.  You know that, right?"   
  
"Of course I do."   
  
"I don't mean to be such a pain in the ass."   
  
"You aren't."   
  
Josh gave him a skeptical look.   
  
"Josh, we look out for each other, you know?  That's what friends do.”

“Mmm.”

“Besides, you've always been a pain in the ass."   
  
Josh laughed.  "Thanks."   
  
It was tricky, with all those sharp teeth, to navigate a kiss.  The first few times, there'd been accidents -- bloody ones -- and, okay, not fun.  They had it pretty much down now, though.  Josh's kisses were soft, more nuzzling than actual lip action.  Chris could kiss  _ him _ , though, as long as he was careful.  It was a little trickier tonight, because Josh was a little drunk and Chris had a bit of a buzz going -- and neither of them were at their most coordinated -- but it worked.

Chris felt the tips of Josh's claws brush his face.  He reached up and laid his hands over Josh's.   
  
"So you're really having a good time?"   
  
"Yeah.  I am."   
  
"We can find ways for you to get out more often, you know.  This doesn't have to be a one-time thing."   
  
"People might get a little suspicious of a guy who's always in-costume, bro."   
  
"Not true!  Remember that one guy in high school who, like, was always dressed up like a macaw?  There were a few people who weren't even sure what he really looked like underneath."   
  
"Crackers?  The mascot?  Is that who we’re talking about?"   
  
Chris laughed.  "Oh geez, I forgot his name."   
  
"I'm not so sure he's the best role model."   
  
"My  _ point _ is... sure, everyone thought he was a little weird, but nobody thought he was literally a real macaw.  I mean, he could've been, for all we know."   
  
"Of course," Josh nodded, mouth twitching, "this is totally like that."  

“I never said it was a perfect comparison,” Chris retorted.  “You know what I mean.”

“So… you think that could work?  I could just… expose myself to people and they’d think I’m just some guy cosplaying?”

“Hey, hey, I never said anything about  _ exposing _ yourself,” he laughed.  “Though… that’s one way to make friends.”

They danced for awhile -- or swayed.  Or sway-danced.  Chris lost track of how many songs it’d been, so he had no real measurement of time passing.

“I’m hungry,” he said, eventually.

“Nice to meet you, Hungry, I’m Josh.”

“Oh my god,” Chris groaned.  “I’m leaving.  Forever.  Bye.”

Josh cackled as he disentangled from him and shouted at him as he walked away, “Get me something, too!”

“Okay!” he hollered back.  

Either there were more people packed in the house than there had been earlier, or the beer he’d had earlier was going to his head, because he had a harder time navigating his way to the snack bar than he had when he’d gone over there earlier.  As many people as there were milling around, he was surprised there was even anything left  _ to _ get at the snack bar.  There was, though.

He grabbed a couple plates, took the time to grab some stuff he figured Josh might like.  His diet veered more towards the carnivorous end of things these days, so Chris grabbed some hot wings, a couple egg roll sort of things that had what he assumed was at least some kind of meat product in them.  Once he was done decking out both their plates, he began the tricky ordeal of making his way back to Josh while making sure he didn’t drop their food on the floor.  Which was a lot easier said than done with so many people to push his way past.  

And a lot easier said than done when Josh wasn’t actually where he had left him.

“Josh?” he called out.  

He tried not to panic, because there were totally logical, reasonable explanations for why Josh might not be there.  Maybe he’d had to go pee.  Maybe someone had asked him to dance.  There was no reason to freak out over what was probably nothing.

And that was when he heard a familiar high pitched noise that nearly gave him a heart attack.  He spun around, eyes scanning the room.  He didn't see Josh anywhere.  He kept squinting into the crowd, heart hammering against his ribs, until finally he spotted him.    
  
Shit, no wonder he hadn't been able to find him in the crowd.   
  
Josh was clinging to the upper corner of the room on the opposite side Chris was at, literally half on the wall, half on the ceiling.  One of their fellow party-goers, a mummy, was poking him with the handle of a broom and Josh wasn't happy about it.  His lips pulled back from his teeth and the broom wavered in the air hesitantly before poking him again.

Chris put the plates down on the nearest available surface and sprinted across the room.  He bumped into a few people a little harder than was polite, but having a couple people pissed off at him beat having Josh eat someone.

“Josh!” 

As he got closer, he could see more clearly the guy who was poking warily at Josh.

“Hey,” Chris panted.  “Look, you really, really shouldn't be doing that.”

The mummy gaped at him. "Are you seeing this?!"   
  
A thousand explanations and lies ran through Chris's head and none of them were especially plausible or, like, good  _ at all _ , but he had to say  _ something _ before--   
  
"That's the weirdest cat I've ever seen, dude."   
  
Chris's brain halted in its tracks.  "Wh-- Huh?  Yeah it's-- it... is.”   
  
"Is it yours?"   
  
"Y-yes?" Chris said slowly.   
  
When he breathed in he could smell the tell-tale stink of weed wafting through the air.  The guy reeked.  He was so stoned he probably didn't know what  _ planet _ he was on.  Thank God.

"My dad'll kill me if the wallpaper gets shredded."   
  
It looked like it was a little late for that.  There were visibly claw marks where Josh had climbed up the wall.  The guy was way too fucked up to notice, though, and Chris wasn't about to point it out.   
  
"I'll get him down, I promise.  Uh, you… should get back to the party."   
  
"Yeah...  Yeah, alright."   
  
The mummy wandered off into the crowd and Chris's heart started beating again.  Then stopped again when he glanced back to where a snarling Josh had been and saw only empty space.  He looked around wildly before spotting him casually creeping across the ceiling.     
  
"Josh!"  

He hauled ass after him, though he tried to be as nonchalant as possible about it.  Most of the crowd hadn’t realized there was a guy on the ceiling yet, and he planned on keeping it that way for as long as possible, because the last thing this situation needed was mass hysteria.

When he was close enough, he shouted, in the most neutral and not at all scared out of his  _ mind _ voice he could manage, "Josh!"    
  
Josh stopped and peered down at him.  "What are you doing up there?"   
  
"Me?!" Chris exclaimed, trying very hard not to get hysterical.  "Dude,  _ you're _ the one on the ceiling!"   
  
Josh looked around, blinked slowly at the ceiling fan he'd stopped beside.  “That explains a lot."

“Yeah, I bet.”

"This ceiling fan," he said, in all seriousness, like he wasn't literally dangling from the ceiling like an especially huge spider.  "Is dusty as fuck.  You should see it, bro."   
  
"No thanks," Chris said.  "I'm okay down here.  Um.  Do you-- could you maybe climb down from there?"   
  
"Maybe," he said, making absolutely no move to... move, claws digging into the stucco.  He tilted his head and sniffed the air and, okay, that was a) a little unnerving and b) probably not good.

Then he sprung off the ceiling.  

Chris's stomach lurched, brain screaming "He's going to break his neck" even as Josh flipped and landed on his feet, albeit a little less gracefully than he might've if he’d been sober.  He stumbled into Chris's arms.   
  
"I think it's time to leave,” Chris said.   
  
Josh grinned at him.  "Can't wait to get me home, huh?"   
  
"Well, that is kind of a perk of living together."   
  
Josh rubbed his cheek against Chris's and it was such an affectionate gesture that he thought his heart would explode.  That or he was still freaking out.  Or both.  Either way, this crap was probably going to put him in an early grave.

~

Getting Josh back to the apartment ended up taking longer than getting him out of it had.  He was definitely drunk, and Chris had what was probably a rare -- if not completely unheard of -- opportunity to witness what a drunk wendigo was like.  It was honestly a little hilarious, now that they were away from other people and he didn’t have to worry as much about people seeing.  Josh kept climbing fences, and trees, and lamp-posts.  More than once he actually fell off, which-- okay, Chris felt a little bad for laughing, but it’s not like Josh was hurting himself in the process.  He always landed on his feet, albeit in a wobbly fashion. 

By the time they got home, Josh had deflated, a little bit.  He staggered against Chris as they walked through the door.  Once he locked the door behind them, he led Josh to the bedroom.  He got him to the bed, where he promptly fell face-first into a pillow.  Chris kicked off his shoes and collapsed into bed beside him.  It was late, and they were both way beyond caring if they actually ended up in their pajamas or not.   
  
"Sorry," Josh said, slurring a little.   
  
"Nah, man, it's alright.  Pretty sure most of them were too drunk to even notice.  And anyone who saw you probably thought it was some kind of stunt trick or something.”   
  
"They'll never know," Josh said in a hushed whisper.  “That I'm a real macaw."   
  
Chris laughed.  "Exactly.  It's okay."

The tips of Josh's fingers snagged on his shirt, but he didn't mind.  It was an old shirt, it could take it.   
  
Josh said something that sounded like, "I'm wiped."  It was hard to know for sure, because he tended to give up on words when he was tired.  He'd always been like that, though the really long teeth he had now probably didn't help.   
  
"Me too."   
  
He pulled Josh close and Josh pressed his face into his neck.  Chris let him, because if Josh was going to hurt him he didn't need his face pressed against his throat to do it.  There were a hundred different ways he could've killed him just tonight while they were laying here, but he hadn't, and he wouldn't.  Josh relaxed against him, claws trailing down his arm, scratching just enough to tickle but not enough to hurt.  He was... it wasn't purring, exactly, but Chris felt like it was whatever the wendigo equivalent to that would be.  It was a low, non-threatening noise that he could feel rumble through his chest.   
  
Ceiling climbing and subsequent heart attacks aside, it had been a good night.  It had felt like old times, and Josh had been happier than Chris had seen him in a long time.  Seriously, genuinely happy.  It had almost felt normal, or as close to normal as a guy and his wendigo best friend slash boyfriend were ever going to get.  

And with Josh curled against him, warm and happy, Chris was okay with almost normal.  He loved the hell out of it.

**Author's Note:**

> I originally was going to write something legitimately creepy for Halloween, but I couldn't resist the call of fluff so here we are.


End file.
